If you were traveling on the Hudson County Extension of the New Jersey Turnpike in Bayonne this Tuesday during the morning commute, you may have found yourself in a bit of a traffic jam. The accident occurred just east of the Newark Bay Bridge, but the traffic stretched back for miles. Why? That morning 10 vehicles had collided in a rear-ending truck accident.

Sgt. Adam Grossman works with the New Jersey State Police, and he informed reporters that they had determined that the accident occurred at approximately 6:20 in the early morning hours. This was not any ordinary collision to clean up.

Not only was there debris to clean up from the several cars that had smashed into one another, but there were two dump trucks that had become disabled on the highway. A large box truck had also become immobile.

At the time of the report it was unclear how many people were actually involved in the collision and what the injury status of each individual was. By 9 a.m. the debris had not been completely cleared, but the backed-up traffic had been reduced to approximately 1.5 miles.

Accidents such as this one are not always easy to sort out. In fact, someone in the middle of the accident may not even know what happened — seeing around a dump truck isn’t always the easiest feat. Witness reports, weather reports, accident reports, physical debris and much more evidence is used to put the pieces back together. When it comes to proving negligence, experience with these cases certainly makes a difference.

Source: nj.com, “Turnpike accident in Bayonne backing up traffic for miles,” Seth Augenstein, March 26, 2013